Communia News

Governments are letting in the light

Bernardo Parrella — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 21:13:36 +0100

A special report on the 'open society' by The Economist [03mar10]

8th Communia Workshop: 19-20 April 2010, Istanbul (Turkey)

Luca Leschiutta — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 12:52:41 +0100

The 8th COMMUNIA Workshop - Education and the Public Domain: The Emergence of a Shared Educational Commons - will be held in Istanbul (Turkey) on Monday 19 and Tuesday 20 April 2010. Please SAVE the date!

Prof. James Boyle, renowned scholar of the public domain, will provide a keynote speech titled: "The Glorious Open Educational Revolution! (And why it hasn't happened yet)".

Indeed: why is it taking so long to have a worldwide, vibrant open commons of educational material? Important successes have been scored, to be sure, but all in all far less than we could have expected ten years ago, considering the nature of education and the general inclination of educators towards openness.

What have been - and are - the main obstacles on the way to implementing something apparently so natural? What can we do to remove them, both by smarter operation on the ground and by appropriate policy changes?

What are the benefits of unleashing the full potential of the open education?

The workshop will convene leading experts, practitioners and all interested parties to explore success stories, best practices, current projects, legal obstacles and technical issues. With special attention, given that the workshop will be held on the Bosphorus, given to the Turkish and Middle-Eastern scenarios, vibrant areas where the open educational movement might soon score important successes.

The workshop is being organized by Ozyegin University (Turkey), Intellectual Property Institute (Slovenia), Creative Commons (USA) and the NEXA Center for Internet & Society (Italy).

Hereafter is reported a list of suggested hotel for Communia Members. Please, at the time of booking, remember to mention Ozyegin University in order to benefit from special prices.

The Marmara - Hotels & Residences Çamlica - Atif Bey Sok. 67-69 Acibadem Istanbul
Bosphorus Palace Hotel - Yaliboyu Cad. No: 64 34676 Beylerbeyi Istanbul
Aden Otel - Rihtim Cad. Yogurtçu Sükrü Sok. No:2 Kadiköy Istanbul
Bella Otel - Osmanaga Mah. Yogurtçu Sükrü Sok. No:5 Kadiköy Istanbul

A registration form specific for COMMUNIA members will be online soon.

Here is a registration form for NON "COMMUNIA members" (a fee is foreseen).

Please read below for a draft programme and further information.[9march10]

Panton Principles for Open Data in Science

Bernardo Parrella — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 05:13:18 +0100

"Science is based on building on, reusing and openly criticising the published body of scientific knowledge.
For science to effectively function, and for society to reap the full benefits from scientific endeavours, it is crucial that science data be made open."

This is the initial statement launching a new initiative, The Panton Principles, authored by Peter Murray-Rust, Cameron Neylon, Rufus Pollock and John Wilbanks at the Panton Arms on Panton Street in Cambridge, UK - with input from the Working Group on Open Data in Science.

Everybody is encouraged to read and endorse the principles, whose conclusion is quite simple: "Data related to published science should be explicitly placed in the public domain".

Read the full Panton Principles for Open Data in Science. [24feb10]

Any bright ideas to use open government data?

Bernardo Parrella — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 08:30:40 +0100

«In several countries more official data are being issued in raw form so that anybody can use them. This forces bureaucrats and creative types to interact in new ways.» That's the central issue in a story about data and transparency in the digital age, published recently by The Economist. The article introduces the data.gov.uk initiative launched last month: «the plan is to post a growing supply of facts that citizens or private institutions can sift through and play with as they choose.»

And while governments of America, Britain, Australia and New Zealand have all produced collections of machine-readable data, the American open-data projects seem more prone to a wider use: [15feb10]

7th Communia Workshop (1-2 Feb. 2010, Luxembourg)

Luca Leschiutta — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 12:46:29 +0100

Digital Policies: the Public Domain and Alternative Compensation Systems

Under the title "Digital Policies: the Public Domain and Alternative Compensation Systems", the 7th COMMUNIA Workshop will take place at the National Library of Luxembourg, in Luxembourg, on Monday 1st and Tuesday 2nd February 2010.

Presentations slides, abstracts, policy recommendations, as well as for some speakers transcripts or papers, are available from this website download section and also from each of the titles in the programme below. A programme document available here collects abstracts and initial position statements submitted by chairpersons and speakers before the workshop.

[11feb10]

The Public Domain Manifesto

Bernardo Parrella — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 18:51:56 +0100

Developed within the COMMUNIA network during the last two years, we are pleased to announce the official launch of The Public Domain Manifesto. The document outlines a series of general principles (opening with: the Public Domain is the rule, copyright protection is the exception), then addresses various issues relevant to today’s cultural landscape finally provides some recommendations aimed at protecting the Public Domain and ensuring that it can continue to function in a meaningful way. While these recommendations are applicable across the spectrum of copyright, they are of particular relevance to education, cultural heritage and scientific research.

The Public Domain as aspired to in our Manifesto has a broad range to include cultural material that can be used without restriction, in the absence of copyright protection; shared material released under alternative licensing options such as Creative Commons licenses; and a variety of fair use and "open access" policies. These sources need to be actively maintained in order for society to reap the full benefit of our shared knowledge and culture, even more so with the wider penetration of digital technologies. It is therefore our hope that The Public Domain Manifesto could be embrace by the civil society at large as a tool to maintain and promote this precious common goods for citizens across the world and for future generations to come.

The document is available in several languages and includes a list of initial signers (both individuals and organizations). Everyone is encouraged to sign it, to follow our Facebook page and... to spread the word (here is our PDF Press Release)![24jan10]

UK government datasets now freely available for re-use

Bernardo Parrella — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 00:57:43 +0100

«Making public data available for re-use is about increasing accountability and transparency and letting people create new, innovative ways of using it. Government data should be a public resource. By releasing it, we can unlock new ideas for delivering public services, help communities and society work better, and let talented entrepreneurs and engineers create new businesses and services.» With these words Sir Tim Berners-Lee announced today the launch of Data.gov.uk, a collection of over 2,500 UK government datasets - now freely available to the public for consultation and re-use.

The Open Knowledge Foundation (OKFN, a COMMUNIA member) worked closely with the Cabinet Office team to make Data.gov.uk a reality - the repository is even using CKAN, the OKFN open source registry of open data. More details - including a selection of the great media coverage about the launch - are available on this OKFN page. [21jan10]

Public Domain Day 2010 in Poland

Bernardo Parrella — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 05:21:41 +0100

The second edition of the Public Domain Day celebration was organized at Warsaw's National Library by the Coalition for Open Education, a group of non-governmental organizations and institutions working in the fields of education, science and culture and promote open access to knowledge. Attended by representatives of NGOs, libraries, cultural institutions and lawyers, the debate focused on the current state of the resource-sharing culture in Poland.

During the event, members of the Coalition also hosted a multimedia presentation on the public domain, held a workshop on cultural resource sharing led by Dr. Alek Tarkowski (Creative Commons) and Jaroslaw Lipszyc (Modern Poland Foundation). Piotr Waglowski introduced a legal analysis of problems related to the public domain.

The most important concern emerging seems to be the lack of public domain protection, thus creating a ripple effect with difficulties and problems at each step. In Poland the whole issue is poorly understood and supported, starting with its very legislation: the translator of the Berne Convention (to which Poland is a signatory) used the official term of ‘nation public ownership’. [11jan10]

Happy Public Domain Day!

Bernardo Parrella — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 11:56:49 +0100

While New Year's Day is an occasion for great celebrations worldwide, we shouldn't forget another special reason to celebrate January 1st: Public Domain Day! In several countries, this day marks the expiration of copyright protection terms on creative works produced by authors who died several decades earlier (1939, for this 01/01/2010). Therefore such works enter the Public Domain, and their content is no longer owned or controlled by anyone but it rather becomes available for anyone to freely use for any purpose. In other words, on each year's January 1st an impressive wealth of knowledge, information and beauty becomes freely available to humankind.

To celebrate this occasion, COMMUNIA is promoting a new website devoted to Public Domain Day: http://www.publicdomainday.org. This project aims at increasing the public awareness of this celebration and educating about the Public Domain concept and its potentialities for spreading culture and knowledge worldwide. The website is particularly focused on this Public Domain Day 2010, providing useful resources (Countries' copyright terms, Public Domain calculators, related sites and databases, etc.) and a detailed list of authors and artists who died in 1939 and now enter the Public Domain (only in certain countries, since copyright regulations differ in the various countries and often require a lawyer opinion). Among the over 600 names included in that list, at least in selected jurisdictions, there are Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis; William Butler Yeats, one of the foremost figures of 20th century literature; Alphonse Maria Mucha, a renowned Czech Art Nouveau painter and decorative artist.

Unfortunately in the US there is little to celebrate because no published works will be entering the public domain until 2019. But the Center for the Study of Public Domain at Duke University (a COMMUNIA member) published a very informative website to mark the event. Other initiatives to celebrate Public Domain Day are planned in Poland and in Switzerland. And here is a COMMUNIA Press Release (in PDF format) for further distribution. [31dec09]

The Public Domain Works registry

Bernardo Parrella — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 22:08:31 +0100

New Year's Day is also known as Public Domain Day, marking the entrance in the public domain of creative works produced by authors who died some decades before. Depending on each country copyright term legislation, on 1. January an impressive wealth of knowledge, information and beauty is made freely available to the humankind as a whole.

To raise public awareness about such important date, the upcoming 2010 Public Domain Day will be celebrated with several initiatives directly organized by COMMUNIA members, including the further development of the Public Domain Works database - an open registry of artistic works that are in the public domain. [29dec09]